Posted 2/5/2002 by Tracy Justus
APCO Project 25 accepts proposal for P25, 2-slot TDMA
[Source: APCO]

News Release
APCO Project 25 Steering Committee
January 29, 2002

Salt Lake City, Utah

The APCO Project 25 Steering Committee announced today that they have formally accepted a proposal from EADS - Defense & Security Networks (EDSN) and Nortel Networks to create a new Project 25, 2-slot TDMA standard. This 2-slot technology will fit into a critical place in the Project 25 family of wireless, digital technology standards for public safety. EDSN is a relatively new entrant in our Project 25 standards process, yet their presence has been known for years in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) TETRA process. In fact, their work in that area led to the creation of the European Publicly Available Specification (PAS) TETRAPOL.

The new proposal accepted by the Project 25 Steering Committee represents a new and exciting compatible advance in our Project 25 standards effort. EDSN and Nortel Networks have taken great pains to ensure their proposal fits the needs of the large, geographically constrained US Public Safety agencies, while proposing an extremely high level of interoperability with a fairly graceful migration path. The core of the new standards proposal is backward compatibility with Project 25 Phase I conventional and trunked systems. This new proposal has expanded and enhances an earlier work of ComNet Ericsson that was subsequently withdrawn.

The EDSN and Nortel Networks proposal will use the Phase I control channel, data format, vocoder, and system identification plans. In its completed form, it will provide backward compatibility to both a Phase I conventional and trunked network. Full interoperability and backward compatibility will be provided through the use of the Phase I Common-Air-Interface (CAI) standardized technology. The Phase I CAI technology will also be used to provide subscriber unit to subscriber unit (direct mode) Communications services in the 2-slot TDMA standards. Based on the information available today, they are predicting this direct mode service and seamless link to Project 25, Phase I technologies will operate at power levels almost equivalent to our Phase I, thereby assuring comparable coverage. Of equal importance to our users and spectrum
coordinators is the fact that the technology developed from these proposed standards will be able to operate in a reasonably spectrally pure environment, which will aid the large users in integrating this technology alongside their existing technology with a minimum of adjacent channel interference.

Mr. Don Pfohl, Steering Committee Member and Director of Communications for the City of Mesa, Arizona, expressed his pleasure with EDSN and Nortel Networks effort to embody all the Project 25 Steering Committee's past and current needs within the confines of their proposal. "With the technology that is created from this proposal, I will be able to ensure my users there is a future migration path from Phase I FDMA to Phase II FDMA or TDMA without having to do a system-wide flash cut." In supporting this proposal, the Project 25 Steering Committee emphasized how important interoperability was to our decision and how important we view the extensive work EDSN and Nortel Networks have done to date. Mr. Art McDole, Co-chair, Project 25, said, "It is evident by the inclusion of the Phase I CAI, the Phase I control channel, channel data format,
vocoder, and the high level of backward compatibility EDSN and Nortel Networks is proposing, that they have collectively made every effort to comply with our
needs as articulated in the Project 25 Statement of Requirements and subsequent documents provided them."

The Project 25 Steering Committee remains confident that Nortel Networks, EDSN, and our partners in TIA will be able to bring a 2-slot TDMA member of the family of Project 25 standards to completion within a few short years. While the creation of the formal standards is highly dependent on consensus, EDSN and Nortel Networks have exhibited their willingness to find it. While we acknowledge these companies' other defacto standard products currently in the field will be competing in some ways with both ETSI - TETRA and the Project 25 Phase I standardized technology, we do not believe that competition will have a dilatory effect on either the sales of Project 25 Phase I technology or our success in creating a 2-slot TDMA standard with our partners in the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).